The West Salem Fire Protection district adopted a lean budget last week compared to the pre-referendum version it presented to the three municipalities it serves.

Officials streamlined the budget, paring it from $410,058 prior to the failure of the Nov. 4 referendum to exceed levy limits, down to $210,115.

The action came at a joint meeting Wednesday held with officials from West Salem, Barre and Hamilton.

According to the adopted budget, WSFPD will levy $188,588 for the next budget, compared with last year’s levy of $177,247. That’s substantially short of the $388,531 it originally sought.

In June, the municipalities agreed to move the fire protection district from a fiscal-year budget to a calendar-year budget. That agreement was amended Wednesday and such action was put off until 2012 so the WSFPD could pay off debt and finance its own 18-month realignment budget.

“Pushing it out to 2012 won’t hurt a thing,” said Merlin Wehrs, fire district treasurer.

Attorney Darrell Talcott said the fire district could not get the financing that would have allowed it to realign the budget cycle to begin Jan. 1, instead of July.

“At this point you’re stuck with going back to the fiscal year starting on July 1,” Talcott said. “The long and the short of it is that two of three municipalities turned it down and that brings everyone back to the drawing board.”

West Salem and the town of Hamilton held referendums asking voters for permission to exceed state levy limits to fund the fire protection district. Both failed by wide margins. Because of its cash reserves and habit of paying its fire district costs early, the town of Barre wouldn’t have needed to exceed its levy cap to fund the fire district request and therefore did not need to conduct a referendum.

Under levy restrictions, municipalities are held to an increase of 2 percent or the percentage increase in the total assessed value coming from new construction, whichever is greater. Joint fire departments are allowed to increase their levies by the U.S. consumer price index plus 2 percent.

As determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, the CPI for the 12 months ending in September is 4.4 percent. Therefore, the fire district can increase its budget by a total of 6.4 percent.

That 6.4 percent is what allows fire protection district to grow its levy by $11,243. In the previous budget cycle that figure was 5.86.

Governing boards for the fire district member municipalities will have to approve the funding for the fire district.

In terms of dollars and cents, the new fire district budget is without the $94,000 short-term loan that would have been used to carry the 12-month budget the extra six months to align it with the calendar year. The other major difference is the reduction of $115,000 for loan payments to $42,000.

That reduction will require the fire district to retire its debt on a pumper truck and remodeling over the next three budgets, instead of just one. Only after those payments have been made (by 2011), Talcott said, will the fire district have enough financial wiggle room to switch the budget cycle. Fire district board members chose to make the switch in 2012 to give them an extra year to set funds aside.

Wehrs said to make their budget work, the town of Barre will need to continue making early payments.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Barre Town Chairman Ron Reed jokingly reached for his wallet and asked Wehrs if he wanted the money now.

The town of Barre has traditionally paid its share early in November, while West Salem and the town of Hamilton pay in January.